Oh let the sun beat down upon my face, stars to fill my dream
I am a traveler of both time and space, to be where I have been
To sit with elders of the gentle race, this world has seldom seen
They talk of days for which they sit and wait and all will be revealed

Talk and song from tongues of lilting grace, whose sounds caress my ear
But not a word I heard could I relate, the story was quite clear
Oh, oh.

Oh, I been flying... mama, there ain't no denyin'
I've been flying, ain't no denyin', no denyin'

All I see turns to brown, as the sun burns the ground
And my eyes fill with sand, as I scan this wasted land
Trying to find, trying to find where I've been.

Oh, pilot of the storm who leaves no trace, like thoughts inside a dream
Heed the path that led me to that place, yellow desert stream
My Shangri-La beneath the summer moon, I will return again
Sure as the dust that floats high in June, when movin' through Kashmir.

Oh, father of the four winds, fill my sails, across the sea of years
With no provision but an open face, along the straits of fear
Ohh.

When I'm on, when I'm on my way, yeah
When I see, when I see the way, you stay-yeah

258 Comments

General CommentI am shamed by how many ignorant and puerile comments on these pages.

FACTS:
=====

1. Kashmir is NOT in Africa, it is in India, North-West to be exact.

2. It is NOT a town or city, it is a region or more correctly, a state. Officially 'Jammu and Kashmir', the capital is Srinagar.

3. Ownership of the area has been in dispute between India & Pakistan since the end of British rule in 1947. (Independance)

4. It IS near the Himalayas which are mostly in China, Nepal, Bhutan and partly in India. The region is mostly mountainous, The Zaskar Mountains and Panjal Range as well as part of the Ladakh Range and Karakoram Range to the North.

5. Kashmir is also a type of fine wool that obviously comes from the sheep that are in the region.

6. Kashmir was originally titled "Driving to Kashmir"

7. It was written while on the road from Goulimine to Tantan in south Morocco (Spanish Sahara).

8. The inspiration for the lyrics came from the fact that the road went on and on with sandrock ridges two miles to the east and west of the road.

9. It is one of Plant's favourites together with 'In The Light'

10. The surviving members all consider Kashmir to be _the_ quitessential Led Zeppelin.

General CommentJimmy Page is an idiot for pimping out this song to Puff Daddy, that stupid wanker who, just like all the other brain dead rap """"artists"""" hasn't evver written a good song in his life. What is 100000 times worse is that i hear that Page is now pimping out Stairway to Heaven to him....

i totally agree jjon ..Ive been zepfan since 7th grade...i was so fuking disappointted by Page..he was known to be tight-fisted with a led wallet...so it wasnt like he needed the money the pricks a billionaire...i m semi-professional musician and i can somewhat understand the sometimes suicidal need for hard cash when people rip you off for a wedding gig cause u dont have a choice..[Picasso used to burn his canvas to keep ward] but this is way way after they sshat money in their sleep...the same goes for that McCartney [and Yoke] prick who was to fucking tight and mean to buy his own songs after being outbid by [of all people] mikal jakson..sorry bout that but im so pissed with my 'heroes'

@phatz brain dead rappers fucking eh the worst thieves out there I hate that vial music with extreme hate and kids that listen to it, lazy bastards, snoop dog should be exiled just like napoleon to elba never to return alive and bring your no talent pals dog, oops did I think that out loud

General Commentwell me and my friend had to do a project at skool about a song and we picked kashmir. heres the thing.

Message in the Music
Led Zeppelin’s Kashmir

In 1969, a new music group put out their first CD, not knowing that they would still be releasing merchandise in 2003. A common household name, this group offers an alternative to today’s common pop and rap music. In 1969, the Hindenburg had come to the world of music. Led Zeppelin was born. The song we are about to play is called Kashmir, which was originally released in the album Physical Graffiti in 1975, after six long years of fame and popularity. With such fame comes tour after tour, travelling around the globe performing for millions of fans worldwide. One has to wonder what kind of toll it takes, playing music without rest, not having time to settle down in a place we would call home. We can even imagine that it might creep into a song’s lyrics, venting the desire for rest from the stage of the world. We believe that the lyrics of Kashmir portray that very desire of the group Led Zeppelin, sharing with us their experience of travelling and the need to rest.
The first stanza of lyrics starts to tell us about Zeppelin’s past. “Oh let the sun beat down upon my face, stars to fill my dream, I am a traveler of both time and space, to be where I have been”. The group tries to compare the distances they’ve travelled across the globe to the vast, infinity of space. They also reinforce that with their reference about stars. Dreams are also vast, and have no limits, the limits of their travels can only be measured by our imagination. “To sit with elders of the gentle race, this world has seldom seen, They talk of days for which they sit and wait and all will be revealed” we think refers to the people Zeppelin met on their tours. Not the big shot celebrities, but the little people who offer them tidbits of wisdom and information. The word elders referring to the wisdom they have, and the phrase “this world has seldom seen”, refers to the fact that your everyday person isn’t well known compared to the stardom of the group.
The next stanza starts to tell us how monotonous Zeppelin begins to find their career. “Talk and song from tongues of lilting grace, whose sounds caress my ear, but not a word I heard could I relate, the story was quite clear”. We think that the song Zeppelin sings about is their own music. They’ve preformed so many concerts, sung the songs so many times that their own lyrics have begun to lose meaning to themselves. It’s like when you repeat a word so many times that you forget what it actually means. They view themselves as simple robots, singing to their fans, but not knowing what they’re singing any more.
The third stanza, while short, also refers to the traveling the group has done. “Oh, I been flying... mama, there ain’t no denyin’, I’ve been flying, ain’t do denyin’, no denyin’”. These two sentences have a basic meaning of traveling, but also can be taken on a literal level. By “Flying”, Zeppelin is telling us about all the plane rides they’ve taken to travel to concert locations.
“All I see turns brown, as the sun burns the ground, and my eyes fill with sand, as I scan this wasted land, trying to find, trying to find where I’ve been”. We think that these phrases describe how Zeppelin felt on tour. Around them, they had no idea where they were, only that they were on tour and had to sing. They couldn’t recognize anything around them, a vast wasteland of no meaning to Zeppelin; they look and try to find their home, where they’ve been before the touring.
“Oh, pilot of the storm who leaves no trace, like thoughts inside a dream.” We think that this signifies how elusive that their home had become for Zeppelin, and how no matter how hard they tried to grasp a chance to go back to a restful lifestyle, it would simply slip through their hand like sand. “Heed the path that led me to that place, yellow desert stream, my Shangri-la beneath the summer moon, I will return again, sure as the dust that floats high and true, when movin’ through Kashmir.” We think that these lines express Zeppelin’s desire for others to not lose grasp of their homes and families. “I will return again”, refers to the fact that after all is said and done, Zeppelin will finally be able to settle down again. The sentence about the dust and Kashmir once again refers to the fact that all the foreign places they had went to were deserts of no meaning to them. Each place they went was just another gig, no longer an interesting place to visit.

“Oh, father of the four winds, fill my sails, across the sea of years, With no provision but an open face, along the straits of fear” This is technically the end of the song, for the next few lines are just “oo’s and ah’s” and things like that. These lines are almost a prayer, asking to be guided through the tough times so that easy times can be found ahead.

In conclusion, our beliefs are that Led Zeppelin wrote this song to symbolize their journey all over the world, rarely seeing home and their families.

@brembo13@ron1021328 I think by CD they mean album ... pretty much nowadays people refer to albums as CDs (although since 2005 with the digital age for music it has probably returned back to the term album)

General Commentthe inspiration for this song comes from Zeppelin's travels through deserts near Morocco (on the west coast of Africa, just to the north of the Sahara, south of spain), not Kashmir which is nowhere near a desert, closer rather to the Himalayan Mountains in India. actually, no one in the band had ever been anywhere near the Kashmir region in India at the time this song was written, but i guess as they drove through the deserts of Morocco they thought that "Kashmir" was a much cooler title than "Morocco", which it is.

General CommentLed Zeppelin were fans of the author of the Lord of the Rings series, JRR Tolkein. This song, as well as several others, has many allusions to events in the series of books Tolkein wrote. This one in particular alludes to events from The Simarillan, which is the elves' history. If you read the book and then listen to the song, you will understand.

General Commentwell well well....i gotta admit that the puff daddy song is pretty retarded, and as for page or plant being retarded for giving puffy the rights to it.....i think it was a good business decision....

anyhow, the song is in fact about their travels through africa and the middel east or wherever they traveled...i had heard an interview in which they talk about the travels, and writing the song while they were traveling....however, i also believe that they were also doing alot of drugs on their travels.....alot of cocaine, maybe dropping acid, and definatley smoking weed. led zeppelin is with out a doubt the greatest....the ultimate rock band ever. alot of the religion through the lands they traveled, have beliefs that the world is sooner or later coming to an end, and that a certain race or culture will be chosen by god and given eternal life. maybe i'm too stoned to clearly explain what i'm saying....but right on man.....this is the greatest song ever by led zeppelin in my opinion......WANT SOME?

General CommentPeople..please ..Kashmir is india..(period).This song was written in 1974 around the time when Led Zepp Visited india because they were not allowed to perform in Singapore because the people thought that they had a negative effect on society(because of long hair).Kashmir and some songs in lucifer Rising came to existance india..The official Sessions of Page and Plant in India with BOMBAY SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA are available on Youtube...